Creative Placemaking and the Public Commons: Community Building through Art in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and San Francisco
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
1-3pm
180 Doe Library
Moderated by Katherine Bruhn, PhD Candidate SSEAS and 2019 GUH Fellow
Co-sponsored by The Center for Southeast Asian Studies & Global Urban Humanities Initiative
This presentation will feature a discussion between artists from the San Francisco/Bay Area and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, part of “Bangkit/Arise”, an international arts exchange and residency.
This residency is led by members of the Clarion Alley Mural Project of San Francisco in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum Chong Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, the Indonesian Institute of Art Yogyakarta and the offices of the local municipality Panggungharjo in Indonesia. The exchange and residency program, lasting from July 2018 – October 2018, split between Yogyakarta and San Francisco, has included the production of public murals, community-based collaborations/ performances, and civic engagement in each site. A discussion of these murals – the result of local negotiation, site-specific networking, and continued dialogue focused on issues including but not limited to: the public commons, urban development and gentrification, and geopolitical divisions that impact the means by which we are able to envision community globally – serve as the backdrop for this presentation.
A comparison of Yogyakarta and San Francisco provides unique insights regarding impacts of urban development globally. Whereas Yogyakarta, a city located in Central Java is recognized for its agrarian roots, it is also one of Indonesia’s key centers for contemporary art production. In contrast, San Francisco, controlled by big capital is said to be losing its creative producers that were in decades past, defining forces much like the tech industry today. Bangkit/Arise brings to light what an understanding of these two seemingly different sites can tell us about the idea and impact of creative placemaking and the potential of art for community building and social justice today.
Participating Yogyakarta artists include: Nano Warsono, Bambang Toko, Hari Ndarvati, Muhammad Yusuf (Ucup), Wedhar Riyadi, Eko Didyk Sukowati (Codit), and Vina Puspita.
Participating San Francisco/Bay Area artists include: Shaghayegh Cyrous, Keyvan Shovir, Kelly Ording, Jet Martinez, Jose Guerra Awe, Christopher Statton and Megan Wilson.